The Wrong Team
by Hieirulesall
Summary: When Tatsuya's mom dies, his life is ruined in more ways than one. The most drastic is that it's his father who gains custody. It's goodbye Josui, hello Musashinomori. Can Tatsuya keep playing soccer, even if it's on the wrong team?
1. Chapter 1

Alright this is one of those fics that was just stuck in my head. I had to get it typed out, so this is the result. It took me forever to get around to typing it, but whatever. This is just an attempt. So…let's see.

((-))

The Wrong Team

((-))

The sun was shining brightly making it a beautiful day. Well for some people the day was beautiful. For others…it couldn't be darker.

Tatsuya sat in a corner in his room, shaking and hunched over. He was clutching his knees tightly. All the windows in his room were closed and had shades over them; the door was locked.

"Tatsuya!" one of his aunts called from outside the door. "It'll be alright; we can fix this!"

"Please come out!" his other aunt shouted.

They continued to try and get him to come out. Tatsuya didn't even look up. Eventually they both gave up and left; he didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. It was rare that Tatsuya cried, but he seemed to be doing that a lot recently. He thought he'd been done; apparently he had been wrong.

A little less than a month before this Tatsuya's mom had been killed in a car accident; he had been devastated. But with support from his team-mates and his aunts he had been just starting to feel better, just beginning to be able to sleep at night. Now this happened and there was no way any of them could make it better, no one could.

Earlier that day in court Tatsuya's father had fought for and gained custody of him. First thing next morning he was being transferred into Musashinomori; there had been nothing either of his aunts could do. Since he had got back home he hadn't left his room. It was just too much.

First his mom died and then this had to happen. He couldn't take it. After everything he'd been through with Josui, after everything they had worked for together, and after all the promises he had made to his team, it was all going to be for nothing. There would be no chance to fulfill any of that. None.

In the court room he had been filled with anger; at his father and at the judge who had decided he had to go with his father, but now…now… All Tatsuya felt now was sadness and desperation.

Some amount of time later, Tatsuya wasn't really sure, he heard a few different voices at the door.

"Come on, Tatsuya!" called a the voice of Shigeki through the door. He was met with silence. "Your aunts told me what happened…" he said added. "We can think of something!"

There was still no response.

"There's no way we're letting anyone take away our captain!"

Tatsuya lifted his head up and stared at the door, but he still didn't say anything. He also didn't move to get up. Shigeki was upset and pretty bad too, if it was obvious enough for Tatsuya to be able to notice. And why should he be! Tatsuya and Sho hadn't been the only members of the team who wanted to beat Musashinomori. It didn't seem fair to any of them. He still didn't get up.

"Tatsuya," Shige said warningly, "if you don't give me a sign that you're still alive in there, then I'm going to find a way to get in anyway."

Go ahead, Tatsuya thought, resting his head back on his knees. He didn't care if they did come in; he wasn't moving.

"Tatsu-bon…" Shige said, evidently giving him one last chance. Tatsuya continued not to respond.

Suddenly he heard a scratching sound at the door. It was sort of like a key, but a bit louder. When the door opened, Tatsuya realized Shigeki had picked the lock. Even then, he didn't care and he didn't move.

Shigeki started walking towards the hunched up form in the corning before turning back and turning the light on behind him. This caused Tatsuya to make the first sound he'd made in the past few hours.

The sudden light nearly blinded the soccer player who had been sitting in the dark for so long. Hissing in pain, he lifted his head up to glare at Shigeki, but was forced to drop his head again when the light hurt his eyes. Why couldn't they leave him alone! Well, he already knew that answer; it was because they were relentless and stubborn. None of that would help them now. It couldn't help him either.

"Get away from me."

"Tatsuya…"

"Go away."

"So you're just going to give up? Just like that!" Shigeki asked incredulously, walking over to stand in front of the captain of their team. "What happened to all that stuff about just keep going and we can win if we just try hard enough? I wouldn't think you'd give up-"

"Get out!" Tatsuya shouted, looking up. "There's nothing I can do! He's…he's…" Defeat filled his face. "I'm being transferred to Musashinomori and there's nothing I can do about it…just go away."

"Why don't you run away. Come life with me and the others…you spend enough time there anyways," Shigeki told him, as if it were so simple.

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I just…I can't…he's still…"

"He's still what? He's still…your father! I thought you hated him? Or maybe," Shige said, "maybe you're just giving up too easily! Maybe you don't really care if you play at Musashinomori because it's still soccer! Do you want to play with them!"

"Shut up!" Tatsuya screamed, leaping up. He was about to swing a fist at Shigeki, but the other boy got there first. He was flung back into the way, a bruise already forming on his cheek.

Tatsuya pushed himself off the wall and glared hatefully into Shige's eyes. The false-blond smirked but the look was wiped off his face when the other suddenly landed his fist in an almost identical way; his head snapped back.

Shige lifted his head, face serious.

A few minutes later saw Tatsuya on his hands and knees with Shigeki standing over him. Tatsuya coughed several times; it was the result of quite a few hits to the stomach. He groaned in pain. Raising his eyes to meet Shigeki's, he quickly dropped them in defeat. It was hard for him to believe how much better of a fighter Shigeki was than him. Aside from the initial hit, every shot had been to the body; Tatsuya wondered if Shige had done that purposely.

"What do you want from me?" he finally asked, still not looking up.

"Don't you quit soccer," Shige said warningly.

"What? I thought you said-"

"You keep playing even if it is on their team," Shigeki continued. "I expect to see you when we make it to Musashinomori. Show me that it was good for you. They don't deserve you," his voice sounded disgusted, "But if you don't make something of it, then everything we've ever done has been a waste."

"Shigeki…" Tatsuya was shocked. He had never seen the older boy so emotional; Shige was always so, well, he hid everything; he never showed anything like this.

When a hand was reached down, Tatsuya took it and allowed himself to be dragged into a standing position.

"You can still stop by," Shige said as he was about to leave the room. "If you're not better after training with them, I'll be disappointed."

"Yeah…"

After Shigeki left, Tatsuya collapsed on his bed, wincing in pain. Most of his chest hurt and he was lucky that none of his ribs had been broken. It must have really meant a lot to Shige…

Despite what he'd sort of agreed upon with Shigeki, Tatsuya still felt some of the hopeless feeling he'd had before. How was he supposed to keep playing? He had finally found the team he wanted to play with; Musashinomori wasn't it.

((-))

I'll most likely be continueing this as soon as possible. I don't think I really like how this chapter came out, but first chapters are usually my worst ones. So, tell me what you think! If there's anyone who thinks the idea is totally rediculous, go ahead and say it, I'll probably ignore non-constructive criticism, but go ahead anyway.

...I have to go write the next chapter now. Shit, I was hoping that at least writing this chapter would keep the idea from going around in my head but noooooooooooooooooo, it's still there. ...Review! (runs away)


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, I was surprised I got reviews so soon, there are so few Whistle! stories I wasn't sure how many people would read this. It's probably the reason I got around to writing this as well, there just wasn't much to read. Thanks to the people who did review, here's your next chapter!

Chapter 2

Tatsuya got out of his aunt's car, tension filling his body. His aunts were dropping him off at Musashinomori. They waved good bye to him before driving off. They would come back later on in the day to drop his stuff off. It had been his decision to go do this himself, but now it seemed to be a rather stupid one.

Well, he wasn't going to show these guys that he was nervous about being at their school, no matter how much he didn't want to be. Sho's face flashed in front of his eyes and he had to force the thought away before it started consuming him again. More of his teammate's faces flashed before his eyes and he shook his head to get the images away. There was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Through the front gates, Tatsuya walked towards the main building, a feeling of dread filling him. There were students hanging around outside and knew at least one of them must have recognized him because the whispers started almost immediately. He entered the building and heard a voice call out his name.

"Tatsuya!" the voice sounded completely shocked. Tatsuya recognized it as the voice of Seiji Fujishiro and looked towards his right to see the other boy run towards him. "What are you doing here?"

Seiji didn't know? Why didn't he know? Had the old man really not told the team that he was coming?

Seiji seemed to see something in Tatsuya's face because his gaze became concerned, "What's wrong? Is everyone okay?"

"He didn't tell you?" Tatsuya finally asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"My father…gained custody over me just yesterday," Tatsuya said this slowly; it was hard for him to say. "I'm being forced to transfer…here…"

"No way…" Seiji didn't seem to know what to say. Tatsuya continued walking and after a moment heard footsteps catching up to him. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Tatsuya said flatly.

"Well, yeah, but still. Wait," a look of horror dawned on Seiji's face, "if you're with us, then Josui…"

((-))

There were times when Seiji really hated coach Kirihara. Rarely were those times during actual practice. It was cruel enough for him make Tatsuya come to Musashinomori when it was obvious he didn't want to, but now the coach had ruined something for his own team too. Seiji knew that he and Captain weren't the only ones who wanted a rematch against Josui.

He was trying not to let his own disappointment get too obvious, but he was really upset about this. Obviously they may still get to play Josui, but he doubted it would be the same. So much for that hope. It was one of the few rematches that Seiji had ever wanted and now it wouldn't be the same, it may not even happen.

He wondered briefly where the captain was; he probably wouldn't be happy. They had all known what would happen if Tatsuya ever came here; he would be replacing one of their midfielders. Katsuro did whatever he could to keep the idea of them being a team going and wouldn't be happy that this was happening, kicking someone off who had worked so hard to stay. Seiji wasn't stupid, he knew Tatsuya would be replacing someone; he was a better MF than all of their current ones, it just depended on who…

But, he didn't want to be mean to Tatsuya either. It wasn't his fault that the Coach was like this and everyone knew that Tatsuya of Josui had never wanted to be at Musashinomori. So, he was going to be helpful.

"Look," Seiji said, "I'm not really sure if there's anything I can do, just… You're in the same grade as me right? Once you get your papers in and stuff, come find me. We'll probably be in some of the same classes so I'll help you with getting around."

Tatsuya was quiet for a minute. "Thanks," he finally said.

((-))

"Alright," the vice-principal said, "I'm surprised it took you this long to come here." He was obviously referring to the fact that Tatsuya had been accepted last year. "Let's go. Are there any eighth graders here that you already know?" the man asked, leading Tatsuya into the hall.

"Seiji Fujishiro is in my grade and said to come to him if I needed help getting around…" Tatsuya trailed off. It was taking a lot of his effort not to get angry, yet he knew this would be the reaction of quite a few people. That same statement 'it took you long enough to come here.'

"Seiji? He's been doing rather well lately, very well. Come on." They went down several halls before arriving in one with quite a few doors leading to classrooms. Opening one, the vice-principal looked in, "I need to see Seiji Fujishiro, he'll be gone for the rest of the period."

"Alright, go on Seiji," said the voice of someone in the room, probably the teacher. Seiji exited the classroom, a few books in his arms.

"Am I in trouble?" Seiji asked before he noticed Tatsuya. Grinning, he said, "Don't worry sir, I'll take good care of him."

"It's almost lunch time, I want you to show him around now and take him to the dorms after lunch," the man instructed before walking away.

Once the vice-principal was out of ear-shot Seiji let out a sound of relief. "Thank you so much?"

"What did I get you out of?" Tatsuya asked, figuring that could be the only thing.

"English," Seiji shuddered. (AN: I guess that would be Japanese for them huh? Well whatever, just think of it as the equivalent)

"You don't like English?" Tatsuya asked as they began walking through the halls.

"It's not the subject, just the teacher. I used to have trouble focusing in class and even though I've gotten better he keeps looking at me to check." The black haired boy made a grumpy face and looked as if he was examining something very closely.

Tatsuya felt amused in spite of himself. Even though he really didn't want to be here, he found it difficult to be completely quiet and angry when Seiji was trying so hard to cheer him up. That was what he was doing: trying to cheer him up. It had taken him a while to realize it, but eventually he figured it out.

He had promised Shigeki that he would keep playing soccer. He knew the fact that he'd be playing for Musashinomori hadn't fully dawned on him yet, but for now it seemed okay. Yet, he felt a sense of dread for when he actually had to get on the field and try…

((-))

AN: Well there you go. I think I'm going to change the genre to humor/angst. Part of this will be angsty, but there'll be some fun stuff too. I'm hoping this chapter came out better than the last. I reread it and I think it at least flows better.

I never really realized Musashinomori lived in dorms until I just reread the first volume in the manga. I was kind of happy though, as I think that'll fit this story better, at least makes it more interesting. So well, um...review! (skips away)


	3. Chapter 3

Yay! More reviews! They make teh author so happy! (huge smile) Echm, anyways. Um...yeah, so I hope you're enjoying my story...

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, this takes place after Seiji visits Josui, but before the thing with Tatsuya's dad in volume 8.

Chapter 3

There were very few people in the lunch room when Seiji and Tatsuya entered. Judging from the look on Seiji's face, he had a feeling that there were usually far more people. This was confirmed by what the other said next.

"Wow! Usually I have to beat people out of the way with a stick just to get food!" the black-haired boy exclaimed.

"Why are there so many people?" Tatsuya asked.

"Well, you'd probably expect that we wouldn't have that many people 'cause this is a private school right?" at Tatsuya's nod, he exclaimed, "Wrong! Because we take people from quite a few districts, there's actually about as many people as a public school, maybe more. We just only have one lunch, you guys have several to split people up."

They got in the short line to get food before sitting down at a small table. "Not to be insensitive," Seiji said, staring at his food excitedly, "but thank you so much for coming here today."

"Not like I had a choice," Tatsuya grumbled. It was almost surprising to see the other boy so…hyper. During the game they played against Musashinomori he had seemed so focused and calm, though he had obviously been having fun. The other time Tatsuya had seen Seiji, he had also seemed excitable, but never so…completely happy…

"I know," Seiji said sadly before cheering up, "But still. If you weren't here, I'd never have gotten this before they ran out! If they had…" Seiji shuddered as he trailed off. The food he was so excited about was just a hamburger and Tatsuya wondered why it made him so happy.

There were more people entering the room now and Tatsuya was beginning to see what Seiji meant about there being a lot of people. He could only imagine if the kids at his school all ate at the same time. …his school. Tatsuya sighed and dropped his head.

"Seiji, what's going on?" came the confused and somewhat accusing voice of Katsuro Shibusawa.

"Captain!" Seiji yelped. Tatsuya looked up to see the captain of Musashinomori's soccer team standing there. "Tatsuya, you can tell him why you're here…"

Tatsuya stood up, suddenly feeling nervous. Even when Katsuro wasn't in the goal he had a presence about him that could be felt easily. "I've transferred to Musashinomori," Tatsuya said, trying to keep his face completely blank, despite the difficulty in saying it. "My mom died about a month ago, my father was given custody just yesterday. So…here I am." For some reason it felt different saying it to Katsuro than it had to Seiji; it almost felt more final.

"I'm sorry about that," Katsuro said, referring to the part about Tatsuya's mother. The team captain looked very pensive and he sat down next to Seiji almost absent-mindedly. Tatsuya got back in his seat and felt rather nervous due to the look on Katsuro's face.

Seiji noticed this and whispered to him, "Captain's not mad at you, he's just mad at Coach. Told him he didn't like the idea of so easily replacing someone on our team."

"How do you know I'm replacing anybody?" Tatsuya asked, he didn't like the feeling of doing that to someone.

Seiji looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding right?" he asked, still whispering. "If you're playing soccer on this team and as long as you're as good as you were before, Coach is replacing one of our MFs with you."

Tatsuya glared angrily down at his food; he didn't feel like eating anymore. It wasn't as if he didn't already know his father was like that, but still. He had figured he would be playing as a regular once he got here; it was why his father wanted him here, but it had never occurred to him…that he'd be replacing someone else. Someone who had probably worked hard to stay as a regular at Musashinomori.

"Don't feel too bad," Seiji whispered, "Akira's kind of a-"

"SEIJI!"

"A really great guy is what I was gonna say, Captain," Seiji said quickly, hiding behind Tatsuya.

"I need to go talk to the Coach," Katsuro growled, getting up and making his way through the crowd of students.

"Captain doesn't like it when anyone on the team talks bad about the others," Seiji explained going back into his seat. "Well, mostly just with the regulars. A lot of the guys can be kind of jerks so he wants to keep us acting like a team. I was going to say that no 10., Akira, he's the one you'll most likely replace, he's boring."

Tatsuya made a tch noise and Seiji looked over at him.

"Hey not everyone on our team is bad," he said defensively. "Take me for example," the dark-haired boy pointed at himself, I am just your typical, average, fun-loving…" Tatsuya waited for the part when he stopped being modest, "…totally cool ace-striker!" Ah, there it was.

Tatsuya couldn't help but let out a short laugh at Seiji's description of himself. "Oh really?"

"Yep!"

((-))

"So how's your stuff getting here?" Seiji asked Tatsuya as the made their way out of the still-crowded lunch room.

"One of my aunts is dropping it off," Tatsuya told him, a slight look of sadness on his face.

"Alrighty. And I assume Coach has already told them that you're joining the soccer team," Seiji's voice was cautious. He knew that this was likely a very dangerous subject.

"Of course," Tatsuya growled.

Seiji nodded, glad that that had been all the reaction. It sometimes amazed him how much a person could hate someone. Not that he didn't believe Tatsuya had plenty of reasons. "Okay, do you know when your stuff's getting dropped off."

"It's probably already here…"

"Okay, we can ask them at the main building," Seiji told him, leading the way.

They went to the main offices and found that Tatsuya's stuff had been dropped off by his aunts less than an hour previous. Seiji found out which room Tatsuya was going to be in before helping the other boy carry all his things.

Stopping in front of the dorms, Seiji grinned at Tatsuya. "This is the soccer players' dorms." He could tell from the look on Tatsuya's face that he was shocked.

"An entire dorm building?"

"Yup," Seiji said as they entered. "It's pretty nice sometimes, though it can be annoying at others. You know, if you don't like someone. But because the building's so big a lot of people have their own rooms. I know everyone in First and Second team has their own room. Third team guys usually share, but even then, the rooms they get are a bit bigger than ours."

Seiji wondered if he was being too exuberant. What if Tatsuya was so angry about being here that he was only making things worse? What if Tatsuya thought he was trying sell the greatness of the school? He didn't think he was, but maybe he should stop talking so much…

"I think, yeah." Seiji stopped walking in front of one of the doors. "This is the room she said you had. It's on my floor, that's because we're in the same grade, but you're only like two rooms away."

Tatsuya opened the door and walked in, Seiji followed him. He'd been right about assuming that the other boy would get a single room. It was hard for him to tell what the other was thinking, Tatsuya's face was completely blank.

"Thanks for showing me here," Tatsuya said, voice empty.

Seiji wasn't really sure how to handle Tatsuya at the moment; he didn't really know him well. But from what he knew, he thought it would best if he didn't make a big deal out of it…

"The tour's not over yet! I'll show you around the rest of the dorms and school grounds. When classes are over we can find captain; he'll know if you're supposed to come to practice today. Come on!"

Seiji waited for Tatsuya to lock his door before leading him out. He wondered why he cared so much about how Tatsuya was doing. He guessed it could be partly because he felt bad for him. At the same time, Seiji couldn't help denying that part of it was because he knew that Tatsuya was likely going to be a regular on their team very soon…

((-))

AN: Not much to say...REVIEW! (hides)


	4. Chapter 4

Heh, I'm glad you're all enjoying my story. I was surprised at the number of reviews, so a big thanks to everyone who reviewed.

Now personally, I enjoyed writing this chapter...I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but oh well. Here ya go! XD

Chapter 4

"I seriously don't know where Captain is," Seiji exclaimed in frustration. They'd been looking around for a while now. Tatsuya watched him with a blank face, not adding anything.

He had been happy earlier that Seiji hadn't questioned him joining the soccer team. After all, it was obvious to anyone even slightly intelligent that the only reason Tatsuya was being forced to be here was to play soccer. Not have to explain it made it slightly easier to deal with.

"Ah! Fine, I guess you'll have to come just in case and I don't wanna be late," Seiji said, shuddering. Students were milling around the school grounds now as Seiji dragged Tatsuya back to the dormitories to change before they headed towards where the soccer team practiced. When they arrived it took a bit more effort than he had thought it would to push away his jealousy at seeing the size of the area.

There were quite a few members of the team already there and most of them turned to look at Tatsuya as Seiji led him. As Tatsuya followed Seiji onto the field he had to admit to himself that it was a relief to see the other boy back into a soccer uniform; seeing him in the school uniform had been a bit odd.

"Hey, any of you guys know where the captain is!" Seiji called out.

"Right here Seiji," said a voice to their right. Both Tatsuya and Seiji turned to see Katsuro and Coach Kirihara walking out of the soccer gym. It was Katsuro who had spoken, but that wasn't the one who Tatsuya's attention was focused on. Coach Kirihara was being given a look that could have frozen lava.

"I wasn't sure if you wanted me to bring him today or not, so I figured he should come just to be safe…" Seiji explained. Tatsuya finally looked away from his father and allowed his face to shift back into a neutral expression.

"You're wearing clothes to play in?" the coach asked, looking Tatsuya up and down. "Good," he said, seeing that he was. He turned away without another remark and started calling the rest of the team in.

Tatsuya hated the way the old man wrote him off like that. He almost wished he hadn't taken Seiji's advice to change simply to make things more difficult for his father. It wasn't until Katsuro put a hand on his shoulder that Tatsuya realized he'd been shaking in anger.

"Sorry," he mumbled, turning his gaze to the ground.

"It's alright now, but you're going to have trouble if you can't calm down around him," Katsuro told him. The older boy had looked significantly disgruntled when he had walked out with the coach, but now seemed much calmer.

"Yeah…"

Everyone on the team was now gathered around as the coach began talking. "As I would hope most of you were able to notice, we have a new team member here who just transferred," Coach Kirihara announced. Those who hadn't noticed tried to discreetly look around and see. "He will be playing be immediately replacing Akira Mikami as MF on the regular team. Come up here Tatsuya," he ordered.

Tatsuya felt his face go hot, though he kept it decidedly devoid of emotion as he walked to the front of the group of people. They all recognized him now and he had a feeling he would be receiving several boos if everyone weren't afraid of the coach's reaction so such a thing.

"I'm sure you all recognize Tatsuya Mizuno." Tatsuya wondered why he was doing this. Why was his father doing this to him! Was it not enough that he was here? Was it not enough that they were probably going to dislike him anyway?

((-))

After Tatsuya had been significantly humiliated, practice had started. At first it was just exercises and other warm ups. That wasn't what Tatsuya was really worried about. What he didn't want to do was what came next. Since he was new to the team in general, let alone the regular team, it was necessary for them to get used to him and he to them. Coach Kirihara had had to leave for a few minutes and had told Katsuro to take care of things.

"Alright everyone, we're going to play a five on five game, since Tatsuya has to get used to working with us," Katsuro said. He split them up into teams and Tatsuya was surprised to find himself relieved at being placed on the same team as Seiji.

As he took his place, Tatsuya took a sweeping glance of those around him. He recognized everyone from Josui's game, though aside from Seiji there was only one other who stood out. That was Shigeru, who happened to be on the other team. He wasn't sure if Shigeru was still out to get him now, but had a feeling it would be best to play on the safe side.

When the game started the other team ran forward taking the ball. Tatsuya managed to intercept it and gain control of the ball. He was marked almost instantly be three people. Mind working fast, Tatsuya looked around for his options while trying to keep the ball from being stolen. Obviously this was part of that whole 'getting used to' thing. They wouldn't accept him so easily if he couldn't prove himself.

Tatsuya swore in his head at the sharp pain in his right leg when he just managed to keep the ball from being stolen. Where was his team! There could only be two people left on the other team to mark! There! Seiji was open, but Tatsuya couldn't get anywhere close to being able to take the shot.

The only option open to him was to attempt to pass it back… Wait, that was it! It had worked last time he attempted to pass while turning around and that had been in the match against Musashinomori. If they were expecting it… Tatsuya took the ball as if he were going to try and pass it back just as it looked like he was going to do so, he spun around and kicked the ball.

One of the ones who were marking him headed it. Before it had the chance to go very far, Tatsuya jumped in the air and slammed his own head forward, sending the ball to the front line where Seiji was waiting. The forward scored easily.

Seiji came over grinning, "Nice job."

"Thanks," Tatsuya replied, wiping his forehead. As they got ready to go again, Tatsuya felt his entire mind focus on the game. Just like every other time, as soon as he touched the ball, nothing else mattered…


	5. Chapter 5

Wow, it really has been far too long since I worked on this fic. I apologize to all of you who had been really excited about the thought of a different type of Whistle! story and thought I wouldn't finish. I can't promise how long I can keep my interest in Whistle, but for now I'll try to get as many updates as possible in the next few weeks while I'm still into it.

Not to be annoying and I'm not sure if it's necessary, but I suggest you reread the rest of the story if you're like me and haven't looked at this in a few months. It's not all that long yet, so I wouldn't imagine it'd be much trouble, I just know that I had to reread it several times before I was confident enough to begin writing on it again. I warn you, the beginning has many grammar mistakes (I was horrified while reading it), but hopefully this chapter has less! (hopeless optomism)

Chapter 5

Tatsuya's team ended up winning that game by quite a bit, but in his head he refused to admit it was because of the combination of him and Seiji working together. After that it got even harder. He was almost always being guarded by at least two or three people and even keeping the ball was difficult, let alone passing it.

Of course, his play wasn't perfect, but despite his hatred of his father and these people, he could not let himself look stupid. A little voice in the back of his mind told Tatsuya that if he just played horribly his father wouldn't want him anymore. But he couldn't do that. He didn't know why; it was just who he was that would never let him do anything less than his best in the sport he loved so much. Yet another voice told him that even that wasn't the reason he wouldn't allow himself to look stupid. It was also because a little part of him sort of wanted them to think him a good player and good at what he did. Tatsuya hated that part.

It wasn't until their second mini-game ended that Tatsuya realized his father was back and had been watching them. He angrily wondered how long the man had been there. His furious gaze met his father and when the man simply raised an eyebrow, Tatsuya almost snapped.

Seiji's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Calm down," he whispered to his new team-mate. "Think about this," he advised, handing Tatsuya a soccer ball. Surprise came into Tatsuya's face as he looked down at it.

Right. Right. If he just focused on this it could be like nothing else mattered; he didn't have to look over at his father. He just had to behave like a member of the team. Just remain calm.

Coach Kirihara called them over then and talked to Katsuro quietly for a minute. It was obvious he was asking how the game had just gone and finally he nodded, seeming pleased. When he lifted his eyes, his gaze met Tatsuya's squarely and Tatsuya knew what he was so pleased about.

"Alright now," the coach was suddenly addressing the entire group. "I'm going to split you off into full sized teams for full length games!"

They were divided up and this time members of the second team were also involved. Tatsuya once again found himself with Seiji as a teammate, but Katsuro was the other team's GK. Obviously his father was trying to further test their ability to work together, this time with someone defending the opposing goal. It was a slight annoyance to him that he was trying to figure out his father's reasoning, but there was really nothing he could do about it; it was how his mind worked.

This match was far different than the small ones had been and Tatsuya once again found himself being guarded far more heavily than one would expect in a regular game even if the opposing team's figured out your strategy. Finally he made a pass to Seiji, but the other teen's shot was caught by Katsuro. Tatsuya waited for the other team's counter and was not disappointed; it came hard and fast. He didn't manage to steal the ball, but did hamper the one with the ball enough to allow one of his own team's defenders to get it.

Receiving the ball again, he looked around for an open spot to Seiji or his other forward. There! Just as Tatsuya was about to kick a force slammed into him from the side and the familiar feeling of slamming into the ground occurred. He didn't need to turn and look to know that it had been Shigeru; the feeling was all too similar. Covering up a wince, he pulled himself to his feet, face entirely calm.

Coach Kirihara was talking to Shigeru quietly off to the side while the two teams were moving to the side for a penalty kick. Tatsuya wondered if what his father was saying was something along the lines of 'don't injure you own team members' or if it was more of a 'hit him harder next time'.

Seiji approached with a grin on his face, though he did look slightly concerned. "Heh, yeah, you okay?"

"Yeah," Tatsuya answered, panting. He was starting to get tired. Not dead tired, but he knew he wasn't moving quite as well as before.

"Okay, good. You're doing a good job by the way, I'm not really sure if that's something you want to hear…" Seiji trailed off uncertainly. Tatsuya just made a non-committal sound. Admittedly, he didn't want to play good for Musashinomori, but at the same time, playing badly would be even worse.

It was Seiji who ended up shooting the PK, though he didn't manage to get it in. There was a scramble for the ball; the other team got it, but Tatsuya intercepted it, sending it forward immediately. Once again Seiji's shot was knocked down.

The game continued on for a while and by the time it ended, Tatsuya was aching with exhaustion. He was pretty sure they had won, but he couldn't quite remember and his legs were aching from running and the number of times he had been knocked down. It was obvious to him that the coach had definitely not told Shigeru not to hit him, but probably just to make sure he didn't break anything. Not that that helped Tatsuya much.

Other members of the team kept giving him odd looks and he couldn't really tell if they hated him or were just looking at him the same as any new player. Although, he didn't particularly care what they thought anyways.

"Alright, everybody bring it in!" came the call from the coach. Tatsuya approached with everyone else, though it took a quite a bit of effort on his part not to show the pain he was in. "It's time for all of you to go eat now and practice is over for the day for everyone except Tatsuya. However, unless you have other studies, I want as many of you back here as soon as possible to continue playing."

Anger flashed through Tatsuya, though he fought hard to push it away. If he let this upset him then his father would know he was getting to him. Well, there was no way in hell that Tatsuya would give him the pleasure of that!

They were all dismissed and Tatsuya immediately began walking in the direction of where he remembered the cafeteria to be. Footsteps behind him told him someone was approaching, but he was too tired to check.

"I'm starving!" Seiji exclaimed from beside him. "Of course, I'm always hungry after practice, but today was quite a bit of work; you almost always got the ball to me."

Tatsuya scoffed. His entire body hurt; he didn't really want to listen to Seiji's hyperness.

"Sorry, you look like you're in pretty bad shape, you okay?" the forward asked in concern.

"I'd feel stupid to admit it," Tatsuya muttered looking away.

"Hm?"

Tatsuya didn't know why he was okay with talking to Seiji, perhaps it was because he was one of the few on Musashinomori's team that really did love soccer. It made him seem less like and enemy. "I got too used being the captain, I think," he admitted, "Until we got a coach, I was the one directing everyone and I think the only times I got to play my hardest were at the end of the day with Sho.

The other teen snickered, though there was no true malice in his tone. "Well, I'm sure I can find some way to cheer you up!"

"Seiji, that better not include talking about your other teammates," came a threatening voice. Tatsuya recognized it as that of Katsuro, so he didn't bother to turn around.

"I wasn't going to!" Seiji exclaimed. "Honestly, captain. You have my word, I would never say anything bad about someone on our team, no matter how boring they may be." Shaking his head, Katsuro came up on Tatsuya's other side.

This was discomforting for the ex-Josui player. It was rare that Tatsuya felt intimidated by anyone, even at his father he only felt anger. Even when he had been about to play a game against him, Tatsuya had never felt the slightest bit of nervousness around the older teen, yet now he did for some reason. Why though?

"What do you think of our team?" Katsuro asked, almost jokingly, though there was a tone of seriousness in his voice.

Tatsuya turned to look at him strangely and was tempted to just ignore the question, though he did finally answer. "It's pretty much what I always thought it would be…"

Katsuro's voice was suddenly dead serious with his next question, "Would you have come to Musashinomori…if Coach Kirihara didn't teach here?" Tatsuya's heart almost stopped in his chest at that question. His mind spun around the answer and it repeated itself over and over in his head. With a horror he realized that...he didn't know.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello all! I bring you...another chapter! Woot! I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter; I'm glad you all still like it. To everyone who's been wondering about when the others from Josui will come in: be patient. I wanted to finish Tatsuya's first day and then move the story over to them. After their reactions it'll go back to Tatsuya, of course, but fear not! I have not forgotten them. After all, how could I? Shigeki's one of them.

Chapter 6

Katsuro's question spun around in Tatsuya's head and he began feeling sick in a way not at all having to do with his exhaustion.

Would he have gone to Musashinomori had his father not been the coach for the soccer team here? Or, say he took it a step farther. Had his father not cared what school he went to in the slightest, would he have really turned down being accepted into Musashinomori? Especially knowing full well how great their soccer team was? It was something he had never really considered before; his father had been here and that was the way it was. He'd taken the entrance exam just to spite his father. Had turned it down because his father was coach here. But if Musashinomori's soccer team had been coached by someone who's name was not Kirihara, would he have still turned it down.

To be quite honest, Tatsuya didn't know the answer. Of course, he'd love to believe that he still would have gone to Josui, but he could not truthfully tell himself that that would be the case.

Finally, Tatsuya just shook his head and looked up at Katsuro. "I'll have to think about that," he told him. "I honestly don't know."

"Alright," Katsuro nodded, "But you're going to have to answer me eventually."

Tatsuya knew that the older teen was dead serious about that, too. He would have to find the out what the answer was, whether he liked it or not. They began walking towards the cafeteria again, as they'd stopped for a minute when Katsuro had asked that question.

The three of them entered the already-full cafeteria together and Tatsuya was struck by just how many people there really were. Katsuro managed to get the three of them seats, though Tatsuya didn't really know how. Sitting down, he realized just how tired he was as his entire body almost seemed to seize in on itself. There was no way he'd be able to eat even if he tried; it would just make him nauseous.

Seiji and Katsuro left to go get food, Katsuro sending their new teammate a knowing look to show he understood that Tatsuya wouldn't want to eat. They came back after a while and the captain rolled a bottle of water over to him.

With a muttered, "Thanks," Tatsuya picked it up. While the other two ate, he relaxed, hoping to gain back some energy for what he was likely to go through once he got back out on the field.

After they had finished eating, all three of them left. Seiji stopped outside. "Sorry, I have some work I need to finish before class tomorrow. I'll try and make it back out before you're done though," he informed them, though it was mostly said to Katsuro, which Tatsuya didn't really understand, but whatever.

So, he and Katsuro went back to the soccer team's training area; there were very few team members left, but they all seemed to be waiting for something. Ignoring them, Tatsuya began to stretch again as his muscles had seized up from sitting down. His father wasn't there yet, but he had the feeling he would be soon enough. Tatsuya was not disappointed.

As soon as Coach Kirihara arrived he separated them into teams again. Everyone else seemed tired from all the playing earlier, but he could tell just by looking at them, that they weren't quite as tired as he was. He wasn't sure if that was because of his position or because of the number of people that were always marking him earlier.

This time Shigeru was on the same team as him, along with Katsuro and Tatsuya was annoyed at how much it helped. Shigeru, for all Tatsuya didn't like him, was still a good player and it was a good thing he had them to back him up as it took a few minutes before he was able to move properly again. Once the adrenaline kicked in again, he was off, determined not to give up in front of these people.

Tatsuya wasn't sure how long it had been, but eventually Seiji came back and joined the game. Were it not for the different colored teams, he would never have remembered who was on his team; the members were changing so constantly. Whether from the coach or from people leaving and joining, the teams had changed more times than he could possibly count.

Finally when it seemed he would drop dead, he heard a whistle somewhere in the back of his head; he couldn't even tell if he'd imagined it. Right now he just wanted to fall to the ground and die. He was hunched over, hands rested on his knees and the only thing that kept him from falling to the ground, unconscious, was the fact that his father would probably see him do it. At the moment, he was considering letting it happen anyways if only everything would stop hurting.

"Tatsuya? Tatsuya?" It took him a minute to realize Seiji was trying to get his attention. It took him another minute to lift his head. "Coach said we could leave now. All of us."

Tatsuya didn't even realize he was about to hit the ground until Seiji grabbed hold of him.

"Hey Captain!" Seiji called out. "Come on," Seiji said, supporting most of his new teammates weight.

"I'm fine," Tatsuya managed to get out.

"Right, sure you are," Seiji agreed, laughing.

Katsuro walked over then and only had to look at the two to see why Seiji had called him. "Can you get him to his room Seiji?"

"Of course, Captain."

"Alright," Katsuro looked at Tatsuya like he wanted to say something, but thought the better of it and walked away.

Seiji helped him walk and Tatsuya didn't even realize when they walked into the dorm building until it was suddenly brighter.

"Um…do you want to shower now or just sleep?" Seiji asked. The look Tatsuya sent him was answer enough, so the cheerful teen helped him to his room before leaving him to fall unconscious on his bed. Tatsuya was too tired to think about Katsuro's question from earlier.


	7. Chapter 7

Hey guys! New chapter, yay for, well me and you. Yay for us! Yeah, I'm not too sure how this chapter came out. It's not really writer's block or an issue in my writing, more a lack of thought. Like, for Tatsuya I was thinking about him going to Musashinomori for a while before I started writing this. But I never really considered the Josui kids. So, hopefully this isn't too OOC. If it is, then I hope their next appearance is better.

Chapter 7

(Josui Junior High, day after Shigeki talked to Tatsuya)

Sho watched Shigeki worriedly; he had no idea what was going on with his friend but he had a very bad feeling about it. Ever since Shige had shown up that morning, irritated and snappy, there had been a cold ache in the pit of his stomach. When he'd found out that Tatsuya wasn't in school that day, the dread had grown worse and he could tell something was really wrong. None of his other friends seemed to notice it, however, so he figured he'd just wait until practice to find out what was wrong with Shige.

It took a lot of control for him not to ask before that. After all, Shige was his friend and he didn't like seeing the other boy so obviously angry and upset. Plus, what if his attitude had something to do with Tatsuya? This thought worried him more than anything. Their captain had been off ever since his mom died, though it was to be expected, and ever since then the team had been as much of a support tower for the other boy as he was for them. What if something else had happened to Tatsuya? Or what if he had just been really upset about something?

Waiting was awful for him, but eventually the school day ended and he was able to meet up with the rest of the team at soccer practice. Shige was standing there, looking just as angry as before, though everyone else was just milling around. "Shige, what's wrong, did something-?" Sho started, but stopped when his teammate held up a hand. He waited for Shige to say something, but he just turned away with a sigh.

Now Sho was really worried; Shige never acted like this. He was always so calm and mature about everything. Well, mature was going a bit overboard, but the point was that he never got ruffled; he was always just so…unaffected. Just as the short player was about to try again, Coach Matsushita approached the team, gathering them all together. He was about to start to talking when they heard Ms. Katori call out to them from across the grounds; she sounded really upset.

"Oh guys! I'm so sorry; this is so bad!" she screamed, practically hysterical.

"What's wrong?" Sho asked with dread. Even the coach seemed concerned.

"Tatsuya's transferred!" she exclaimed.

Everything went dead silent as if a blanket had just been dropped across them all. It was as if the world had fallen down all around them and they were the only ones still standing. Sho felt his heart like it was right in front of him and it was all he could hear.

Suddenly Shigeki's behavior throughout the entire day made sense. If the other boy had known about Tatsuya leaving, then he'd have been thinking about this all day. But why wouldn't Shige just tell him about it?

"Where?" Matsushita asked quietly. His face was sad.

"I don't know," Ms. Katori told them quietly. "All I was told was that he's been signed out of the school to transfer somewhere else…"

"Musashinomori," Shigeki's voice cut through them all as if he'd yelled it. They turned to look at him, wondering how he knew. "His aunts called me last night; I went to talk to him. Coach Kirihara got custody of him and he's been transferred to Musashinomori."

And there it was.

There were multiple groans and exclamations, but it was Sho's voice that was heard above the rest. "We've got to go see him," the short player declared in his most determined voice. All their attentions shifted from Shigeki over to Sho. "Tatsuya's has to be really upset and angry; he needs us. And after everything he's done for us and what he's been through he's going to need our-"

"No," Shigeki cut him off.

"We have to Shige. It wouldn't be that hard to get to him."

"The last thing Tatsuya needs right now is to see our faces." Turning his back on them, Shigeki went and got a ball and began dribbling it off to the side, seemingly in his own world.

As much as it hurt, Sho knew that most of what Shige said was right. Knowing Tatsuya, he probably saw it as a betrayal of them all and everything they had worked for, even if it wasn't his fault. Seeing them probably would make him think about it more, but at the same time, Tatsuya needed someone. He needed them…and they needed him.

"I know…" Sho said aloud. It looked as if Shige were ignoring him, but he had known the larger player long enough to know that he wasn't. "But Tatsuya's part of the reason we go this far. Maybe not now, but we do need to see him. Even if it's not as out captain, or even as a teammate, Tatsuya's still our friend."

The other team members nodded. "Yeah, he'll need someone to help calm him down," Masato laughed, trying to lighten up the mood.

"He's going to be really angry," Yusuke mumbled.

"Alright," Shige nodded, agreeing, "but we have to give him some time. And we need to figure out how we're going to do it." He didn't sound worried.

"Hey Daichi…" Sho looked towards their keeper, who had been silent this whole time.

"It won't work with so many people," he responded shortly.

"Oh. And we can't see him outside of school because they have to live in the dorms at Musashi."

"Well, the new seasons not too far away…" Masato trailed off.

"If you're going to find a way to see him," Coach Matsushita suddenly spoke up. "It's going to have to be before this season. Until you see him you're not going to be able to reassure yourselves that he's okay. By waiting until then you'll destroy your chances of becoming a real competitor."

"Alright, well we could send just one or two people in," Masato suggested.

"That won't work; they'll recognize all of us," Yusuke reminded him.

"They don't know Daichi."

"I'm pretty sure they'll remember me," the keeper smirked.

"I could get in without them noticing," Shigeki told them, "but I've already had my talk with Tatsuya. It's you guys who need to see him. I understand if you're worried though, I may have hit him a few times."

"Shige," Sho said suddenly worried for Tatsuya's physical health as well as mental, "what did you do?"

"Relax, pup. I just got him really mad, because it was better than his depression. Oh, and I told him that he had better not quit soccer because of this." Shige laughed, "I may have killed our chances of beating Musashinomori, though."

"What do you mean?" Masato got there before Sho could ask.

"Think about it. Musashinomori was hard enough for us to beat before. If they've got Tatsuya making passes to Fujishiro," Shige laughed. "I'll bet it'd be pretty fun to watch if it wasn't us."

So, they set about making plans on how to get in to see Tatsuya.

"You're not going to stop them?" Ms. Katori asked Matsushita. They were both standing off to the side.

He sighed, "I think they need to see him, not just as a teammate, but, like Sho said, as a friend. In a few minutes I'll get them started on practicing. I don't want them to freak out and think they have no chances of beating Musashinomori without Tatsuya. If I can keep them working…"

"You think they can still win, even with Tatsuya playing against them?"

"I think they owe it to themselves and to him simply to have that match. Whether or not they win."

AN: Please review on this one, if only to tell me which characters are off that way I can fix them in later chapters. Next chapter will probably be up in a few days for those of you who are wondering.


	8. Chapter 8

Yay, new chapter!

Note about this chapter: Believe me, I'm not over-exadgerating Tatsuya's soreness. Take it from someone who has pushed their body to the limit before; you will be in pain the next day. I may actually be making it seem less than it is, because one would probably feeling pretty nauseous too and I didn't include that...

Chapter 8

It was the morning of his second day at Musashinomori and Tatsuya had woken up in quite a bit of pain. He'd had to stretch for several minutes when he had gotten up just to be able to move properly and he was still incredibly stiff and walking very slow. Changing into the Musashinomori school uniform had been a mentally-painful task for him, but he'd put it on none-the-less. Upon leaving his room he had found Seiji waiting outside his dorm room; he had decided to show Tatsuya around until he got used to the school. The other teen was back in his school uniform, which once again threw the midfielder off, as it was so different than usual.

"Just what do you find so funny about this?" Tatsuya snapped.

"Er…nothing…" Seiji waved his hands in front of his face as if to ward off the other teen. He had seen Tatsuya practically limp out of his room and had pretty much burst into laughter on the spot.

Making sure the door was closed behind him, Tatsuya turned to walk away. Of course, it was pretty easy for the other to catch up to him considering the pace he was moving at.

"It's not you I'm laughing at. I'm just thinking that this is what I must've looked like," came the still-amused response. "Kind of like backwards deja-vu."

"What do you mean?"

"Coach does this with everyone who becomes a member of the regular team, no matter how they become a part of it," Seiji explained as they started down the stairs. He slowed down with a snicker as Tatsuya struggled to make it down. "He makes them play from pretty much when we start practice until the very end of the day. It's his way of showing us that the hard work doesn't stop here, that it'll only get more challenging. I guess he thinks it'll cut down our pride for making it so far."

"He does that to everyone?" Tatsuya felt himself surprised at that. For some reason he had figured that he'd been receiving special treatment from his father simply because he had wanted to torture him. Yet, the way Seiji explained it seemed so much like Coach Kirihara that Tatsuya felt stupid for being surprised.

"So, anyways, what I meant by backwards deja-vu was that I remember Katsuro standing outside my door waiting for me. If I remember right, he thought it was pretty funny," Seiji had his chin rested on his hand as if in deep contemplation. He snapped his head up and grinned at Tatsuya, "Of course, I was sort of arrogant back then. I became a regular last year, so I had quite an ego."

"I can't imagine what could have cut it down," Tatsuya replied as they left the dorm building.

"Hm…I don't think it was anything in particular," Seiji thought aloud.

"Oh, I don't think you've ever forgotten how good you are," an amused voice from the came from the right.

"Hey, Captain, I was just telling Tatsuya how you laughed at me my first day as a regular," Seiji told Katsuro. Their team captain had come out from a different door.

Katsuro rolled his eyes. "You were pretty funny looking and awfully whiny."

"Now I remember!" Seiji exclaimed, ignoring Katsuro's remark. "I think it was the fact that I couldn't score on Captain. No matter how many times I tried, he always managed to stop me. You killed my ego!" Seiji accused.

"Thank god."

Tatsuya felt himself oddly amused and was actually quite thankful for it. He desperately needed something, anything, to distract him from thinking about both Katsuro's question from the day before and his own disgust at being forced to play here. Eventually he knew he would have to come to terms with both of these things, but for now he was sore and not altogether in a good mood, so he saw nothing wrong with letting himself forget about it for the moment.

They made it to the cafeteria pretty early, apparently and it wasn't hard to move around, for which Tatsuya was grateful. Katsuro left to go sit with some of his friends in his own year. Tatsuya went with Seiji to go get food and was surprised to find out that the other boy didn't really have all that many friends outside of the soccer team. Apparently that was pretty much all he thought about. It reminded Tatsuya a little bit of himself before Sho came along, only without the hyperness.

As soon as Tatsuya saw food he realized how hungry he was since he hadn't had anything the night before. He got as much as he could on his plate.

Seiji laughed when Tatsuya ended up eating faster than him. "You're gonna choke or something."

"Hypocrite," Tatsuya got out before taking another bite.

"Hm…were you given a schedule yesterday?" Seiji asked, ignoring him.

Tatsuya looked up, "Yeah, I got it yesterday."

"But you only just got here yesterday, how did…" Seiji trailed off at the dark look that passed over Tatsuya's face. It left almost as soon as it had come, however.

"My father had been planning this for a long time," he responded, voice devoid of emotion. After a minute, he shook his head and returned to eating.

"Alright, let me see it," Seiji told him, trying to break the tension.

"Sure, here," Tatsuya stopped eating and pulled it out of his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Seiji.

Taking it, the forward looked it over. "You're in most of my classes, maybe all of them…yeah that's all of them. I think you're probably better than me in most though," he laughed, handing it back. "It took me a lot of work to keep my grades up, since I spend so much time at practice."

As weird as it had been for Tatsuya to see Seiji in a school uniform, it was even weirder listening to him talk about academics. Of course he knew that grades were important in Musashinomori; they were in every school, but listening to someone as hyper and soccer-obsessed as Seiji was…it was weird.

"Which class is first?" Tatsuya asked.

Seiji's response was to shudder dramatically and mime shooting himself.


	9. Chapter 9

Hunh, not many people liked that last chapter, I guess. This one should at least be funny, I certainly enjoy it XD

Chapter 9

Tatsuya and Seiji's first class ended up being as bad as the forward had made it out to be. The teacher had started off immediately telling Tatsuya that just because he had come in half-way through the school year, didn't mean he would be cut any slack on any of the oncoming work. Having paid attention the entire class, Tatsuya received a glare as he left the classroom as if he'd spent the entire period talking.

"Mrs. Montell doesn't like people who are really smart," Seiji explained, judging the confused and annoyed look on his teammates face correctly. "Or stupid people. Or people who talk too much. Or people who are too quiet. Or tall people. Or…"

"Stop," Tatsuya said firmly as the other teen was about to continue. "How about, does she like anyone?"

"Nope, not really. I was just listing out the specific types of people she's told he she doesn't like," Seiji grinned. "Take me for instance, according to her I'm too tall, too excitable, too happy, too good at sports, and too hard working."

This had been nothing, however, to the overly nice teachers he informed him about how they wouldn't pressure him and he could take as much time as he needed. He was not some idiot jock, damnit! Seiji told him he should be happy while it lasted as they'd given up that treatment of him over a month ago.

"They start off nice, but once they realize you're smart and athletic they expect you to be perfect. I got on the good side of most of them, though, so I'm sure they'll end up liking you…"

Tatsuya snorted with disbelief. Normally he would have been furious at these teachers, but while he was annoyed, at the same time, he welcomed it. Being able to think about this distracted him from having to think about more painful topics and for that he was grateful. Seiji's commentary on all the teachers helped greatly.

By the time it came to their last class, Tatsuya was expecting another normal teacher, annoying, and altogether exactly what he would expect from Musashinomori. Boy, was he wrong.

"Who teaches the last class?" he asked Seiji as they made their way there.

"Mr. Toro, he's not really all that bad, but he's kind of…obsessed and crazy. Expect this look a lot," Seiji put on a face like an over-excited child.

"What's he teach?" he asked as they walked into the room. Before Seiji had the chance to answer there was an almost-mini explosion and Tatsuya was met with the most excited looking adult he had ever met.

"Welcome to my class, sirs! I am your world history teacher," the man said proudly.

Tatsuya's eyes widened a little. Seiji stepped in front of Tatsuya. "Hello, sir. This is Tatsuya and he's in our class now. He can sit with me and I'll make sure that he understands everything that's going on," he told the teacher. Looking back over his should he whispered to Tatsuya, "Just keep walking."

"See that you do, Seiji!" the teacher then proceeded to greet the rest of the class as they came in.

Once everyone had sat down, Mr. Toro announced to the class, "We'll be going over several battles today in class. Now, this is a soldier, let's say, you're the soldier," he picked up a blackboard eraser. "So, you're a soldier on a battlefield."

Tatsuya wondered where the hell this was going. What was the age mentality of this teacher anyways?

"Now, this is a cannonball," the teacher held up another eraser. Suddenly he slammed the two erasers together and shouted, "Bam! Smash! Boom! Bang! You're dead!" Chalk dust flew up everywhere as Mr. Toro proceeded to throw the two erasers to the ground and stomp on them.

Tatsuya, as well as most of the other students, had looks of shocked surprise on their faces. Seiji, on the other hand, looked like he was only just barely holding in laughter and seemed to have enjoyed that incredibly.

As the dust cleared, Mr. Toro was now looking over the class very calmly and professionally. This effect was ruined be the two mauled erasers lying on the ground. "Now class, I want you to tell me what this demonstration has taught you."

Seiji's hand was the first in the air.

"Yes, Fujishiro?"

"If we go into a battle we're going to die a violent and bloody death caused by a cannonball," Seiji guessed, grinning cheekily.

"Exactly!"

As they left the class, Tatsuya looked at Seiji with a look that clearly said, "what the hell?" "Is that teacher insane?" he asked calmly

"A little," Seiji grinned at him. "He's a pretty good teacher, though, because nobody ever forgets what he teaches them."

"I can see why." Tatsuya shook his head. It just figured that the one teacher here the forward seemed to like was a total lunatic. He wondered how someone like Mr. Toro could have ever ended up teaching at Musashinomori. Oddly enough, he found himself excited about that class and figured it would probably be one of the only ones he ended up liking.

"Time for soccer!" Seiji told him excitedly. When Tatsuya twitched, the taller boy grinned.

Tatsuya felt it hard to ignore now that he was actually about to go play. Katsuro's question burned at the back of his mind, looking for an answer, but he refused to give it access to the rest of his thoughts. Aside from the pain, today hadn't been that bad so far. He knew it would be, though, because now they had to go to practice. He would once again be forced to face his father and hopefully he would be able to keep from limping when he did so.

AN: The story about this history teacher is something I got from a friend of mine. It actually happened with the driver's ed teacher in our school, but you know, whatever.


	10. Chapter 10

'Nother new chapter. Not many reviews on the last two, though I suppose everyone's just busy. I'm in a writing group that no one has posted in since Christman (inner rant), so I guess most people are busy doing other things. Heh, I don't gots anything to do since my laptop was pretty much my only Christmas present and I got it almost two months age :P Last time I make a deal like that with my mom! (is bored)

Chapter 10

"So, how do you plan on playing when you're walking like an old man?" Seiji asked Tatsuya mischievously as they made their way to soccer practice. They'd already dropped their school stuff off in their dorm rooms and had gotten changed. Tatsuya didn't yet have a soccer team uniform, but the clothes he wore were still fine for practice.

Glaring at the forward, Tatsuya responded tightly, "I'm going to play as if I'm just fine."

"You honestly don't think Coach will notice?" Seiji laughed. "If you don't say anything he'll just make you keep playing. He's done that before; make players keep going unless they say something. The only time he doesn't is if it's like a sprain or something and they risk getting really hurt."

"That's fine with me," Tatsuya growled. I will not show him any weakness, Tatsuya added to himself, He will never get me to say I can not keep going.

After all, if Tatsuya did say he was tired all that would result in would be some sort of remark about how he wouldn't be out of practice if he hadn't been playing for a third-class team. Man, he hated that man so much. All he cared about was himself and Tatsuya was shocked the man had not yet taken the time to gloat about finally getting him. Or maybe just having him here was victory enough for that bastard.

Mentally, Tatsuya ranted on and on about his father. He had already played out his father's reaction to him being sore and that only served to fuel his anger. It was because of this that he didn't notice the other person as he and Seiji rounded a corner of one of the school buildings to come almost within sight of the soccer fields.

It came fast and while the midfielder's normal reactions would have been good enough, he was too angry and too stiff to notice Akira's approach. He did notice when a fist landed across his face, the force knocking him back into the brick wall of the building. The other soccer player came swiftly and punched Tatsuya in the stomach. Fists pounded his stomach, made more painful by knocking him back into the hard wall. His muscles wouldn't work right and the extra tension of having the wind knocked out of him made him gasp in pain.

Seiji had been walking several feet ahead of him and turned around at the sound. He let out a shout of surprise and ran at the enraged player. Akira had already landed several hard hits to Tatsuya's stomach and the midfielder was not in any condition to fight someone. But Seiji couldn't risk fighting; that might get him taken out of the soccer tournament. Hoping for the best, the forward grabbed onto Akira as best he could and tried to drag him away. Focusing all his weight into it, Seiji managed to get him far enough away from the tired player so that he couldn't hit him.

When the Akira was pulled away, Tatsuya no longer had anything holding him up and he slid down the wall to settle on the ground. Pain flared throughout his chest along with a deep ache from sore muscles being forced to tighten. Coughing as he struggled to get air into his lungs, Tatsuya wrapped his arms around his stomach. He heard shouting and struggling as Seiji tried to hold the other player back.

"You think you're better than me?" Akira shouted at Tatsuya. "After all the work I did to keep my spot, you just come in here as if you're some prodigy. If Coach weren't your father, you wouldn't be here!"

But before Akira had the chance to say more, there was more shouting as those already at the soccer field had heard the commotion. They took in the situation with far more intelligence than Tatsuya would normally think they held. Several of them latched onto Akira, allowing Seiji to back off and walk over to his new teammate.

"You okay?" he asked, rubbing his cheek with the back of his hand. It looked as if he'd gotten hit there.

Tatsuya only nodded, still holding his stomach tightly. It hurt far worse than he thought it would and he hoped desperately that none of his ribs had been broken. He tried opening his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a stream of coughs from trying to force too much air into his abused lungs. This left him to breath in short gasps that he thought must make him look like he was hyperventilating.

"What's going on here?!" came an angered shout that froze all of them. Even Akira stopped struggling against his teammates as Coach Kirihara walked between them. His eyes scanned all of them, obviously taking an account of the situation. Finally they came to rest on his son who was struggling to stand up, though he was still holding his stomach and his eyes were clenched in pain.

"What happened?" he asked once more, voice deathly quiet and obviously furious. He turned his gaze to Seiji, who nodded.

"Tatsuya and I were coming here, on our way to practice. I wasn't really paying attention when I heard something behind me. Akira had Tatsuya against the wall and was hitting him repeatedly. I grabbed him and tried to pull him off until everyone else showed up and helped me," Seiji told the story as if delivering a military report. Tatsuya had never seen the taller player so serious and wondered if it was because Coach Kirihara was so angry or because Seiji himself was really mad.

"Tatsuya?" Coach asked after a minute. His son had finally managed to get to his feet and looked relatively unharmed. He would have though Tatsuya was fine, but for the fact that he was still holding his stomach and he had a pained look on his face that was obviously too much for him to hide.

Glaring darkly at his father, Tatsuya responded, "It's just like Seiji said. I was coming around the corner when he surprised me." There, he'd rather admit to being surprised than having to admit that he'd have been too stiff to stop the other player anyways.

The Coach nodded and then asked Akira for his side of the story, but the other player refused to say anything. He glared darkly at Tatsuya and then at the coach before shrugging the other players away and staring at the ground.

"Seiji, take Tatsuya to the nurse and make sure nothing's broken. Akira come with me. I want the rest of you to carry on practice as usual; tell Katsuro where I am," he ordered. Before leaving, he warned the other players not to slack off just because he wasn't there.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey there again. Heh, a couple people asked about when Sho and them are popping up again. I'll consider that for either next chapter or the one after that since I'm sure they're not the only ones waiting on that. Happy several day after New Years by the way! XD

Chapter 11

"Well at least the nurse doesn't think you broke any ribs!" Seiji cheerfully told the aggravated and quite miserable Tatsuya. All he received was an angry glare in response.

They'd gone to one of the several nurses at Musashinomori and she'd been almost positive that none of the midfielder's ribs were broken, though they were most definitely bruised. It was causing Tatsuya quite a bit of pain now that the initial shock of getting the wind knocked out of him was gone. That and his already sore body left him in a foul mood when he hadn't been in a good one to begin with.

"At least you won't get in trouble for fighting since I was there to witness you not attacking him back," Seiji tried again. This time it was an incredulous look, as Tatsuya would have preferred to at least hit the other player back once. Then again, he may not have been able to play for a while if he did, so Tatsuya was still wondering if that was a good thing.

Now the two were headed back to the soccer field, though according to Seiji there wasn't really all that much time left before practice ended; they'd been at the nurse for a while. When they finally arrived everyone was practicing as per usual. A quick glance revealed that Coach either wasn't back yet or had come and then left. That left Katsuro as the person for them to go talk to.

"Hey Captain!" Seiji greeted, happy as ever. Katsuro shot a quick glance at them before turning his attention back to the players he was watching. Without looking at them he waved Seiji and Tatsuya over.

When they got there he asked, "Injuries?"

"My pride," Tatsuya responded gruffly, staring out at the different players, though not actually focused on what they were doing. His answer was sort of true and at the same time it wasn't. It wasn't so much that he really felt embarrassed, just that he was annoyed it had happened.

Katsuro grinned at his answer. "You know what I mean," he said firmly, glancing at the shorter player for a second. Tatsuya glared out at the field.

Realizing that he wasn't planning on saying anymore, Seiji answered their captain's question for him, "He bruised his ribs, but luckily nothing's broken."

"The Coach stopped by," Katsuro said, almost as if he was talking to the field. "Seiji, get in as much practice as you can today. We should probably work on penalty kicks tomorrow. Tatsuya, you're to hang around and watch; don't get any more hurt than you already are. You'll be practicing as a normal member of the team, starting tomorrow."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Seiji saluted.

Tatsuya snorted. It figured that the old tyrant wouldn't give him much time, though Tatsuya wasn't entirely sure he was upset about that. Which was worse, he wondered, getting treated like any other member of the team or being treated as some amazing prodigy? Then again, to these guys, he wasn't a prodigy. To them, he may be better than Akira was, but that didn't make him outstanding, it only made him good. Besides, he didn't like either of those two options and his father was a jerk. Yeah, that worked.

As he and the forward walked away, Tatsuya thought he saw Katsuro glancing at him out of the corner of his eye, but passed it off and kept going. They joined the rest of the regular team who were just playing a four-on-four game.

"Akira's going to be lucky if he doesn't get kicked off the team," one of the defenders said, he sounded annoyed and almost angry at this prospect. Tatsuya could not place his name, though he knew he should find out.

"He did work hard to stay on the team," one of the others added. They were all looking at Tatsuya, though he noticed that only a few seemed annoyed. Most of them were exactly what he'd expect of Musashinomori; they were willing to accept him because he was better and it had nothing to do with loyalty.

Tatsuya scoffed.

Seiji pouted. "Well, it's his own fault for doing that. He should have at least been smart enough not to be in full view of the soccer fields!" he told them cheerfully.

"Thanks," Tatsuya muttered sarcastically.

"Still, he shouldn't have been made a substitute just because the coach's kid shows up," the first one said angrily.

Tatsuya felt himself grow angry at this, but he didn't know why. It wasn't the mention of his father… Was he really mad that they thought that was the only reason he made it on the team? How could he get mad at that when he didn't even want to be on the team? Yet, this was something that did strike his pride. The thought that he wasn't good enough to be a part of Musashinomori; it made him angry…that was messed up.

"You honestly think Coach would put him on the team if he wasn't good enough?" Seiji asked them incredulously. "It's Coach we're talking about here."

"We watched him play yesterday and he was fine," the other forward, told those who seemed annoyed at him being there. "He is better than Akira."

"That doesn't mean it's okay…" still the first one.

"Our goal is to win the Championship," one of the others said, "and that means we have to have the best available."

"Don't you have anything to say to us?" he asked Tatsuya viciously, finally turning towards him.

"No," Tatsuya answered coldly.

"You think you're too good for us or something? Just because you got on the team easy, doesn't make you anything special." Now they were all looking at Tatsuya.

"I don't want to be on the team at all," their newest member informed them coldly. "Given a choice, I would much rather be at Josui than here. … I am here, however, and I'm not going to play any less than I'm capable of; Akira can just get over it."

While most of the others nodded and seemed fine with this answer, Tatsuya himself was shocked by what he'd just said. It had been cold…in a way that was entirely different than any way he had acted before. And he did honestly feel bad about Akira, though less so since his ribs had almost been broken. What surprised him even more though, was that everyone else seemed fine with his answer…as if it was one they could see themselves giving. He didn't want to turn into them.

"Heh, nice speech," Seiji laughed.

"It wasn't a speech," Tatsuya scoffed without thinking. "I didn't plan to say that," he admitted.

"I think it might have been more the pain and irritation talking," the taller player told him mischievously, poking him.

Tatsuya only nodded slightly, but honestly…he wasn't so sure.

AN: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ...that is all.


	12. Chapter 12

Woot! New chapter! A lot of you've been asking for this one, so here it is. This chapter takes place a few days after the last one, just so you know.

Chapter 12

"You're not going to believe this!" came a scream from the other side of the Josui sport's fields. "Team!" Yuki ran over, holding a notice in one hand, a completely baffled look on her face.

"What is it?" Shigeki asked lazily from where he sat. Practice had ended a little while ago, but he and Sho had been playing since then and had only just stopped when they heard Yuki.

"You're not going to believe this!"

"You said that already."

"What is it, Yuki?" Sho asked.

"Check this out. Musashi no Mori has announced that they will be playing one practice match before the official season starts. They've never, ever allowed their team to be seen by anyone before a season starts." She showed the announcement to the shocked players.

"Is there any way we can sign up?!" Sho practically shouted. He restrained himself from yanking the piece of paper from her hands, though only barely.

"Yeah, but we gotta do it today or someone else will get there first."

"Hey coach?" Shige looked back over his shoulder at Matsushita, who was approaching with a thoughtful look on his face.

"I'm not going to stop you," the coach seriously, "in fact it would be a good idea for the team to get this practice to see how we match up at the moment. But I want you to think about if you're really ready to face Tatsuya like that."

"We're ready," Sho answered firmly. His gaze would have seemed determined to a lot of people, but to those who knew him well, there was something missing.

By the time it was dark out the only ones left practicing were Shigeki, Sho, and Daichi. The two forwards were playing on one team trying to score on the goal keeper.

"Kick it harder," Daichi ordered as he caught the ball Sho had kicked.

"Right," was the only response the forward gave. They went again several more times.

"Stop, stop, stop," Shigeki called, stopping a pass. "What's wrong? You're kicks are weak; you've got no heart in it."

Sho sighed. "I'm sorry, Shige. It's just…I can't stop thinking about Tatsuya…and our team."

"Tatsuya's going to be fine," Shige told him with confidence. "Our team is going to be fine too. I thought you learned that by now, puppy."

"But without Tatsuya, we're going to have a lot of trouble. And you know how much he hates his father. What if he does something?" Sho shook his head. "He's my best friend; I can't just stop thinking about this."

"Look, puppy, Sho…" Shigeki sighed. He was not good at this kind of thing, especially not with Sho. Tatsuya he could snap out of practically anything. And Sho was the one who always inspired him. But that left out a significant piece of the circle, as it was Tatsuya who usually helped Sho. "Tatsuya isn't going to stop playing soccer just cause he's on that team." Kicking the ball fiercely at Daichi to keep the keeper from getting annoyed, he walked over to Sho.

"Our team isn't the same."

"I miss Tatsuya too, but the team is mostly the same. Of course our playing is different without him playing, but we're still a team. You've always been the one who encourages people."

"I can't except that," Sho said taking the ball Daichi passed. He kicked it fiercely back. "Tatsuya is just as big a part of this team as I am. Why can't we get him back? Every time something happens there's always been something we could do. This time; it's as if he's just moving along without us."

"It's not like he wants to."

"I know but…" Sho's face contorted in pain. "It was supposed to be all of together. We were finally going to beat them. Our team was coming together and everything was gonna… Without Tatsuya, it's not going to be the same. Even if we could beat Musashi no Mori, he would be the one left behind then…"

Shigeki looked down the distance that separated he and Sho in height. Now he really was confused. Not at what was wrong with Sho, but with how he was supposed to stop it. How the hell was he supposed to help Sho?!

It was just as Shige was about to try again when a ball flew past him and slammed into Sho's side, knocking him back, if not making him fall over. The small forward looked at Daichi with a bit of annoyance, uncharacteristic of him.

"Daichi, if you don't have any way to help…"

"Just play the game," Daichi said in that flat tone he always spoke with.

"I think your solution's right there," Shigeki said, trying not to burst out laughing at the goalie's attempt to 'help'.

Surprisingly enough, Sho nodded. "Alright…alright. That's why we're having this game, right? To solve these problems before the season. Okay. Thanks Daichi." Sho grinned.

"For what?" Daichi asked, his version of confusion written all over his face.

"Uh…never mind…"

It was at this point that Shigeki just couldn't take it and started laughing. "Come on puppy. And if you don't kick it harder this time we're gonna have to go over some of our earlier training again."

((Musashi))

"We got a team," Katsuro announced, sitting down for dinner at the table where Seiji and Tatsuya sat.

The midfielder scowled. He disliked this idea of them having a practice game. Musashi had never played a game before the season started before and he knew it was only because of him. His sentiment had been felt by the rest of the team as well, but there was no arguing with Coach Kirihara.

"I guess we should have expected a lot of teams would jump at the opportunity," Seiji mumbled around the food he was eating. "So, who got it."

Katsuro's face had a strange look to it. "Josui."

Tatsuya's face grew pale and he would have choked had he been eating. As it was all he could do was stare at their team captain, almost praying that it wasn't true.


	13. Chapter 13

Hey look, another chapter right away! I'm glad a lot of people are still reading this, thanks a lot for reviewing guys.

This chapter I think came out okay, although I'm not too sure how in-character some of the Josui guys are. I also still need to go find the names of the rest of Musashi no Mori (I know, I should have done that about 13 chapters ago . )

Chapter 13

It had been a little over a week since Tatsuya had started his first day at Musashi no Mori. About half that time had been spent recovering from the first two days. Since then Akira had been permanently banned from the soccer team, which had angered his friends greatly, but bothered the rest of the team little. Apparently he'd been lucky not to get expelled, though the difference to the team didn't seem to matter much with him not being a regular anymore. At one point in the halls Tatsuya had seen the other player; the look on his face had been murderous. This the smaller player returned with glare of his own, though he still felt bad for Akira.

Beside that, little had happened that really stood out in Tatsuya's mind. His hatred and anger at his father was a near-constant, but it was because of its frequency that there were no particular times when he could remember it being especially bad. When he wasn't practicing with the team, he was either hanging out with Seiji or studying/doing schoolwork.

Now it was Saturday, though, and Tatsuya knew this day would stand out in his mind. It was the day of their practice match against Josui and he was bouncing back and forth between happiness at getting to see his friends and worry about what playing against them would be like. He couldn't get rid of the feeling that he was letting them down. What if they hated him for this? All morning he kept picturing everything they had gone through together and all the practices and what being their captain had been like and-

"Eat something!" Seiji's cheerful, yet commanding voice cut through his thoughts.

"I'm not hungry," the mid-fielder informed him glumly.

"Eat anyways, you're going to be later," Katsuro said from his seat on Seiji's other side.

"Is that an order from you as Captain?" Tatsuya sighed.

"If that's what it takes to get you to eat, then yes."

"Wonder how they're holding up without you?" Seiji said, staring up at the ceiling blankly. "Obviously they're doing better than you if they're actually willing to play against us," he added, turning to grin mischievously at his newest teammate.

"Are you trying to use psychology to get me motivated?" the midfielder asked flatly as he took a bite of the toast he didn't want.

"Maybe…is it working?"

"Nope."

"Awe."

After a while, Katsuro got up and stretched. "We're meeting out on the field in an hour," he informed them before walking away, probably to speak with the rest of the team.

"So, that means you've got an hour to try and sneak away," Seiji told Tatsuya, who only scowled at him in annoyance.

((-))

Leaving their dorm building beside Seiji, Tatsuya set his face. He was going to have to do this; there was no stopping it. The back of his mind told him it would be a relief to get to see his friends and to be able to talk to them; he ignored that part. Even as they approached the field, he could see that Josui was already there. Glancing to the side he saw that Seiji was practically bouncing as he walked.

"Excited?" Tatsuya asked, though it was obvious from the look on the forward's face.

"Are you kidding? I've been waiting to play against Josui again since our first game!"

It still struck Tatsuya as amazing that Seiji and Katsuro had wanted to play against Josui as much as they'd wanted to play against Musashi no Mori. Shaking his head he looked to the field again, only to see a blue blur shooting towards him.

The only thing that kept Tatsuya from flying into the ground as Sho slammed into him was Seiji grabbing his arm at the last minute. It took a few seconds for him to stand straight again and stead his ex-teammate. He looked down into the shining eyes of one of his best friends.

"Sho? Uh…are you okay?" Tatsuya asked, voice showing his confusion.

"I was worried about you," the smaller player admitted, sounding embarrassed.

"I'm okay," he lied.

"Heh, see everything's gonna be fine," Seiji nodded. "Now come on! I can't wait to get out there!" As the tall forward ran ahead, he left Tatsuya and Sho alone.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sho asked, looking his friend up and down.

"Yeah…yeah, I am." They began walking towards the field together, taking this moment to talk. A new thought nagged at the back of his mind. He wondered if it would be okay to ask it. Probably it would be a bad idea. But this was Sho here, right? Sho wouldn't mind. At the same time, what if the answer was one he wouldn't like? How did it even affect him anymore? With a mental sigh he decided he was going to find out soon anyways. "So…do you have a new captain picked out?" Tatsuya tried to make it sound natural, although he had a feeling his voice sounded as worried as he felt.

"Hm? Not yet. Shigeki's acting captain until we pick an official one."

Well that made sense. Until they picked an official one, hm? He wondered who would get chosen. "Any chance you're considering it for yourself?"

"Me?" Sho sounded completely shocked at the idea. "I'm not good enough to be captain! I could never replace you! I'm really no good and… Not that Shigeki could replace you either! Without you we really-" He stopped talking. "Uh…we better hurry!" Before Tatsuya could say anything else, Sho ran over to the rest of the Josui team.

Sighing, he headed on over to where the Musashi no Mori players were getting ready.

"Have fun?" one of the players asked him nastily.

"Enough," Katsuro declared firmly before any of them had a chance to say anything.

As they began stretching, Tatsuya looked across the field to his old team. His eyes met Shigeki's almost instantly. The false-blond's eyes were intense and Tatsuya found himself almost incapable of looking away. His friend's intent was obvious. Narrowing his eyes in remembrance of their last talk, Tatsuya returned Shige's challenging look. Shige had told him not to quit, eh? Well he was going to make him regret that. Wait, where did that thought come from?

Shigeki's only response to Tatsuya's return-look was to laugh and turn away. Scowling at this, Tatsuya got ready to take his place. It may only be a practice match, but it meant a lot to him. And he knew it meant a lot to them as well. If only he could think of them less as his friends than as another team.

((-))

AN: As usual, any questions, comments, or concerns are welcome. I'd also like opinions on Sho and Shigeki. I have a hard time writing them for some reason so if any thinks there's something a bit off, I'd be glad to hear what it is so they don't sound off. Yes, being in-character is immensely important to me ;)


	14. Chapter 14

Hm...I think my timeline is a bit screwed up in this story. Well, whatever, I guess it's not really a big deal. If anyone thinks it is, then, um...I'm sorry XD Anyways, yes, I did update again right away, yay! Hopefully I'll be able to get the next one to you guys soon, too.

Chapter 14

Tatsuya watched as Katsuro shook hands with Shigeki before the game started. It felt weird to not be the one doing that, as he'd gotten used to being a team captain. Eyes scanning across the field, he saw that Masato had been put in as a regular and the formation of the midfielders switched around. That was pretty much Josui's only option without Tatsuya there and with no trained replacement.

Daichi stood in the goal, already positioned for the ball to come his way. It disappointed Tatsuya that he'd never really gotten a chance to play an actual game with Daichi on their team. The dark boy was a good player and could be amazing once he got more experience. Shifting his glance over to Katsuro, Tatsuya thought that was probably another factor that added to the GK's presence in the goal; Katsuro just seemed as if he had seen everything that could come his way.

In the midfield was the least amount of actual skill. They may have worked well together, but they all required a lot more practice if they really wanted to be able to keep up with stronger teams.

Sho and Shigeki as forwards were great. Tatsuya worried they wouldn't play as well without him there, after all, he was the starter for their attack. All the same, both were great at adapting and should be able to at least play a good game without him there. It would be interesting to test this out…

It wasn't until the ball was put in play that Tatsuya realized he'd been analyzing Josui's members as if he was still their captain…as if he was going back. …but that wasn't right. He wasn't going back; he was never going back. When the ball came towards him he almost didn't notice it in time. He managed to pass the ball to Seiji, but only because there was no one near him at the time. Tatsuya caught the slightly surprised look on Seiji's face as he received the pass and knew the forward had felt how weak the pass had been even if nobody else could tell.

_Focus!_ he shouted at himself mentally. _Don't look at their faces just focus on playing the game!_ This seemed to work at first. Tatsuya watched as Seiji got the ball all the way to the goal, but pressure from the defense forced him to make a shot that Daichi easily caught.

Instead of being annoyed as anyone who didn't know him would expect, the forward only grinned in anticipation and started running back almost before the goalie could send the ball into the air. Shigeki received near Tatsuya and the midfielder ran up. This was something much easier for him to handle. He and Shige were so competitive; he wouldn't spend his time analyzing the other player's strategy.

Grinning, the false-blond attempted to get around the block, but Tatsuya wouldn't let him get close. _Keep your goal narrowed to getting that ball from him…watch for others. Sho's waiting for the pass…no one else is close…there!_ He got the ball away from Shigeki, but that was only the first part.

Now was when he needed to get to Seiji or their other forward (AN: I'm looking up the names, I swear I am! …tomorrow…) That was difficult with Shige right there. They spent a short moment going back and forth with the ball before Tatsuya practically kicked the ball out from Shige's feet.

It was happily received by Seiji, who took it to the goal and with a powerful kick scored the first point of the game. This wasn't a surprise to anyone; that Musashi no Mori had scored the first goal.

The game was going again almost immediately and Tatsuya felt almost as if he was back to normal. There were several failed attempts at a goal, but nothing that came significantly close. However, this almost seemed to fall apart when Tatsuya blocked Sho from moving forward. Instead of how it had been with Shige, the midfielder's attention wouldn't focus with just his competitiveness to keep him in line.

It was a shock to many when Josui managed to score after Musashi no Mori had only gotten one point. Tatsuya felt his face almost go red and couldn't look at anyone. What was wrong with him? Even when he'd been playing for Josui he'd never had trouble focusing once it came time to play. Once the ball came to him nothing else had ever mattered; all he had to do was play and do his part. Yet now…what was wrong with him?

As the ball was being moved back to the line, he noticed Seiji run over to him.

"What's wrong with you?" the forward asked, though he didn't sound angry.

"I can't stop thinking about them," Tatsuya answered, looking into the taller player's eyes. He didn't want to; all he wanted to do was look down. However his pride wouldn't let him; he may feel like a whipped dog, but he wasn't going to let anyone else see that.

"Just get the ball to me," Seiji told him cheerfully. "This only makes it more interesting."

"Yeah."

No matter what he did, though, he just couldn't seem to get it right. By the time the first half of the game was over it was one to one, far less than any of those at Musashi no Mori had expected. Half the time Tatsuya managed to pass the ball forward, just like he was used to, the other half ether Shigeki or Sho would manage to steal it. Whenever it came down to him and one of them he just never seemed to be able to play like he was used to. What was worse was the looks he was receiving by members of both his own team and those of Josui.

((-))

AN: Yeah, this chapter is a bit scattered. I hate to say, I'm not all that good at writing a soccer game. If anyone's got any suggestions they would be welcome.


	15. Chapter 15

And the next chapter has arri-ved! Thanks for all your support guys, I'm glad you like it. Heh, sorry for all my complaining about myself.

Chapter 15

Tatsuya tried to ignore the looks and whispers being given to him by his team members as they went to sit down. It was halfway through the game and the score was tied one to one. This was far less than anyone had expected, especially now that Tatsuya was on the team. He was supposed to make them even better!

Getting a towel, the midfielder was about to sit down when a much larger person stood directly in front of him.

"What the hell was that?!" Coach Kirihara shouted. "I've taught you better than that! And you know how to play better than that!"

Glaring up at him, Tatsuya was shocked to find he didn't know what to say. What was he expected to say 'I'm sorry coach, I just suck now.'? That wouldn't work. He felt horrible now as it was and this was something he didn't feel like dealing with.

"I don't care if they used to be your friends; when you get on the field you play like they're your worst enemies!" The coach ordered. "They are nothing to you now," he said darkly, "I want you to remember that. If you keep playing like this _you_ are nothing. Do you understand me?"

It had been a long time since Tatsuya had felt so bad when his father yelled at him. When he'd been little he had always wanted to cry, but as he'd grown up the yelling had only served to anger him; it was what had made him hate his father so much. Now he didn't feel angry anymore; he was still ashamed and he didn't feel like getting mad; there just wasn't any room for it. Head and eyes facing towards the ground, he just nodded.

"I expect you to improve in the second half." With that the coach walked away.

For a few minutes Tatsuya just stood there staring at the ground. He felt awful. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He'd been playing horribly and he didn't know why. He was breaking his promise to Shigeki and he was letting everyone down. This game didn't even matter and he was still managing to let everyone down.

Risking a glance over at Josui he felt his chest clench. Sho was watching him and looking incredibly worried. The small player cared a lot about him and Tatsuya knew that his playing, coupled with his father yelling at him in front of everyone had probably made his friend fearful for him. Just as painful to see was Shigeki's look of anger and a bit of betrayal. Tatsuya's having to play for Musashi no Mori hadn't fazed him, yet his playing badly had made the false-blond look furious, like he'd been betrayed. Why? He knew why, though, and it was why he felt so horrible. It was because he was playing almost like he felt bad for them.

Not being able to stand seeing the emotions they were turning towards him, Tatsuya looked back at the ground. When someone else walked over to him, he could tell it was Katsuro.

"I don't know what to do," Tatsuya whispered before the Captain could even say anything. "I'm trying, but…they're my friends. And now I'm making it worse and it's not even on purpose."

The goalie sighed softly. "They don't care who wins…I would think you of all people know this by now. To them, this game was all about seeing you; they wouldn't have signed up for it otherwise, and now they only feel like they have more to worry about." There was silence for a moment. "Look at it this way, they'd prefer it if you beat them all single-handedly right now. You're so wrapped up in guilt that it's blinding you."

Guilt? Was Katsuro right and it was really that he was guilty about playing them? About beating them? It felt like it, but that didn't change anything…not really.

"If that's what it is then-"

"Tatsuya, let me ask you something, which is more important to you, the sport or the people you play it with?"

Another one of Katsuro's unanswerable questions, Tatsuya's mind thought glumly. "I used to think that the sport was the most important part, but…that was before I started playing with them."

"Would you still have been friends with them if you'd stayed at Josui and somehow one of you hadn't been able to play?"

What was the point in all these questions? This answer was obvious. "Of course. We'd be friends even if we didn't play together anymore."

"Then separate the two in your mind. You've been going along this whole time as if they _are_ soccer. The two are not one and the same. They are your friends and they'll always be your friends. What you're doing right now is playing soccer."

Tatsuya thought the phrase 'like getting hit with a ton of bricks' would have fit in nicely in this situation. What Katsuro said made so much sense that he couldn't even believe it. Had he really been thinking that playing with Josui meant playing soccer? Yes, but that's what it had been to him. It had been that way through tough times. They had worked hard together. So, how was he supposed to separate the two in his mind? Ah, he didn't have time to go through this now! But if he didn't sort things out now then the game would start up again!

"You ready?" Katsuro asked when the ref blew the whistle to signal that the game was about to start up again.

"No," Tatsuya sighed as they walked out onto the field. Katsuro gave him a strange look before going to the goal.

Stepping into his starting place, Tatsuya tried to think as quickly as possible. _Separate them in my mind, separate them! What is soccer to me? _His mind conjured an image of playing with Sho and Shigeki in their first game with Musashi no Mori. An image of Sho bringing Daichi to the team. But there was also him as a little kid, playing with kids at least two years older than him. He saw himself playing with Shigeki the first time the false-blond had been on the team. Then he thought about playing with Seiji. It was different than playing with Sho was, but did that make it bad? _I enjoy playing with Seiji, even if I dislike almost everyone else on this team. I can still enjoy soccer even if it's not as great as playing with them…_

This he came up with just as the whistle was blown and the game began. The next question presented itself in his mind: If he could play soccer without them, what did that make them? It ran around in his mind, though he prepared to receive the ball. He hadn't come up with an answer by the time the ball came to him.

What did that make them?

What did that make them?

Shigeki was almost immediately in front of him, looking more vicious than Tatsuya could remember ever seeing him. They were playing for him. What they wanted was for him to be okay. The answer came to him. He kicked the ball as hard as he could, sending it flying past the slightly surprised Shige.

What did that make them? His friends.

His father's words came back to him. _If I can't even play my best for them,_ he thought, _I really am nothing._

((-))

AN: I actually don't have that much to say really... If anyone's got at requests or suggestions I'd be happy to consider them. Um...I'm working on the next chapter so how soon I get it out depends on how long it takes me to decide what I want to happen...


	16. Chapter 16

I know it's been over a year since I last updated. I know you guys hate me. I accept death if that's what it comes down to XD Well, here's an update. I felt terrible for leaving this thing for so long, especially since I've been getting so many reviews since that last update. And many apologies to anyone who has to reread the story to remember what's going on, I know I had to.

Chapter 16

Surprise showed on the faces of many of the players at the complete turn-around the game took at the start of the second half. Not that one-to-one was an uneven score; the fact that it was even was what surprised people so much. However, when it took only ten minutes for Musashi no Mori to score four points, there was no mistaking the change. Josui scored again after that, but the game's pace was very different.

Tatsuya's play, which had been struggling before, went back to his usual, calm and cool style. No matter how many players Josui sent to block him, the midfielder managed to get around them to send to one of the two forwards awaiting his pass. There was no more hesitation in his actions, nor did he seem to take a second glance at any of the opposing players.

As he continued to play, he secured the thought in his mind that he'd held since the second half started. They were his friends and he was still playing soccer with them. Whether they were on the same team as he didn't matter. He'd have been friends with them even if they didn't play soccer and it still was, whether they were on the same team or not.

In the last fifteen minutes, both Josui and Musashi no Mori each scored once more, leaving the final score at Josui: 3, Musashi no Mori: 6.

"Something gives me the feeling that this is what almost happened to us last time," Masato groaned as he collapsed to the ground along with the rest of the team.

"We scored more than last time," one of the other players remarked.

"They scored way more than last time, though," another player groaned.

"That was awesome!" exclaimed Sho, one of the few who's mood had not been darkened by their loss. "We lost by three, but that was without Tatsuya on our team, imagine how we'll do once we get in more practice and the actual tournament starts up!"

"Yeah, but he was playing horribly for the whole first half," Masato sighed. "What do you think would have happened if he'd been playing like that for the whole game?" Everyone shuddered at this thought.

"That was quite a change he pulled," Shigeki murmured thoughtfully, staring across the field at Tatsuya. The midfielder looked tired, but that was to be expected.

"It was," Sho agreed, sitting down next to the other forward. "I was worried about him for a second. What do you think changed it?"

"Well, his old man yelling at him certainly didn't help. I was sure he was going to completely fall apart after that," Shige admitted, watching Tatsuya. "I think it was something Katsuro said to him…"

"I'm gonna go talk to him, come on," Sho announced determinedly, getting up and heading over to the other side of the field.

((-))

Tatsuya stretched tired muscles, trying to keep them from freezing up on him. That had been hard, but it wasn't nearly the toughest game of his life. It had felt better just letting go and playing, though part of him wondered if he was going to feel bad about that later on. One thing that he decided was great about not being team captain was that he didn't have to run around talking to everyone when the game was over. Right now all he wanted to do was lay down. Closing his eyes, he tried to zone out until a loud voice interrupted.

"Hey, anyone home!" he heard Seiji's voice talking at him excitedly.

"Nope."

"You can act like you don't like me all you want, I know you think I'm great," Seiji told him.

At this, Tatsuya opened his eyes slightly to give the forward a flat look "What on earth gave you that idea?"

"You've been stalking me since you came to school here," the forward answered mischievously.

Tatsuya frowned. "You are, without a doubt, one of the stupidest people I've ever met," the midfielder told him, grinning to show that he didn't really mean it.

"You see what I mean? He pretends to hate me!" Seiji was talking to someone outside Tatsuya's field of view.

"Who're you-"

"Tatsu-bon!" came a loud shout and Tatsuya was tackled by someone larger, sending both he and the other person flying off the bench and into the dirt. Shigeki grinned as he got to his feet, dusting himself off.

Twitching in annoyance, Tatsuya stood up. He glared at Shige with a look promising a painful death. "I was actually going to apologize to you, too," he grumbled. "You cared so much before and now…? Forget it."

Shigeki and Seiji gave each other a high-five. Tatsuya noticed that Sho was nearby and turned to him with a smile. "I'm sorry if I worried you before," the midfielder said.

"It's not a problem," Sho replied. "I'm glad you're feeling better now. That was one of the best games I've played in my life!" he exclaimed excitedly. "What happened, anyway? You changed so much in the second half…"

"Katsuro helped me get a few things straightened out," Tatsuya told Sho.

The shorter teen nodded, though there was an unreadable expression on his face. "You and Seiji work really well together," he said with a sad smile.

"Not as well as with you," came the immediate response. They were silent for a moment, the sound of Seiji and Shigeki still talking excitedly was like a background noise. "So, how long are you guys here for?"

"Coach got permission from your school for Shige and me to stay for a little while after the game. Not on the practice field, but I figured we could hang out. I probably know this place better than you," Sho told him with a grin.

"Probably," Tatsuya laughed, knowing he'd have gotten lost several times without Seiji. "We'll probably have to have a short team meeting, but I think after that we can hang out."

"Sounds great!"


End file.
